New Gas Station in St. Mary’s is Bullshit. The comissioners don’t care.

St. Mary’s county commissioners have announced a plan to approve a permit to extend Tulagi Place all the way to Willows Road. They did this despite the protest and disapproval of those who live in the neighborhood. None of the commissioners live in Lexington Park and none take the needs of that community into account when making decisions. They site traffic as the reason for the extension, but residents know that the decision is intimately connected to the approval to build a Royal Farms in that location which will, inevitably cause the traffic they’re aiming to alleviate. There is no support from residents for the Royal Farms either. Our only community theater will be removed, along with several long-standing local businesses. It is also important to mention the recently established Passive Park. This is a space for local residents to access green space, fresh air, and quiet from the busy roads in the area. It was well-designed, with the lack of transportation that plagues the neighborhood in mind. It is accessible by foot and deliberately sectioned off to cars. The proposal to extend Tulagi Place would put an access road for the new Royal Farms dangerously close to pedestrian walk-ways that lead to the park entrance. It would also drastically increase the amount of fumes and pollutants children on the playground in the park are exposed to. In a part of the county with increased asthma rates, we can’t fathom how that extra exposure would help. The county commissioners do not listen to the people who speak at the open forums. They simply let them vent, wait a month, and formalize the decision they had already made. We must raise hell to protect our neighborhoods and public green spaces from yet another bullshit gas station designed to exploit the people of Southern Maryland.